Hi there,
My name is Kate and I just joined the site so that I would have the opportunity to upload and share the first AMV I have created. I am going to warn you, I'm a total amateur and just did it for fun so I am sure the quality is not good and I'm sure it will add to the eternal collection of AMVs made for Cowboy Bebop. I heard this old blues song called On the Western Plain by Leadbelly and it reminded me of Spike. So I hope you enjoy it. Tactful constructive criticism is welcome and appreciated.
On the Western Plain
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CodeZTM
- Spin Me Round
- Joined: Fri Mar 03, 2006 6:13 pm
- Status: Flapping Lips
- Location: Arkansas
- Contact:
Re: On the Western Plain
Hey Kate! Welcome to a-m-v.org. I hope you enjoy your stay here. We're all about constructive criticism (although I don't know so much about EVERYONE being tactful, lol). :3
___________________
Anyway, I checked out your video. For a first video, you several good ways.made a few mistakes that everyone makes in their first videos, but on the whole, you started out as an editor on a good foot.
First off, you did nice work with the visual quality. I've seen cleaner Cowboy Bebop, but this was definitely clean enough to watch without being distracting,
Secondly, you had a good concept. Wanting to capture the western aspect of Spike's "cowboy" nature. Cute idea (it's been done, but still cute), and the fact that you had a well thought out idea for what you wanted to edit is a great thing! Plus, I loved how you cast the villain as Jesse James. Made perfect sense, and was a cute idea.
Thirdly, you did a nice job with the opening bit with Spike and the blue rainy scene.
Unfortunately, what your AMV lacked (and again, this is something that a lot of new editors do, so don't be too discourageed) was execution. The scenes you selected really didn't match your concept, and the editing really didn't go well with the music.
What do I mean by this?
1) You stated that you wanted to capture Spike in this video, yet early on, you've got many scenes of Faye and Jet by themselves. If you want to focus on spike, then you really need to JUST keep him in the video as the central focus.
2) Transitioning wise, there were a few issues. See how at :08-:10, where you go from a VERY dark/somber scene, to a very bright/comical scene? It's very sudden and could have used something to make it easier for the viewer. A crossfade, perhaps? But more importantly, the scene here doesn't really fit the lyrics of the song. It's starting out about "When I was a cowboy", so you might have used a scene where he was in a bar, or reminiscing.
3) You really passed up on some interesting sync/editing opportunity. :48-:51 with those single syllable words? That's a perfect opportunity to sync those words to some interesting movements on screen, or doing hard cuts. Plus, this is prevalant throughout the video, and could have been repeated easily enough with the same style, but with different scenes.
Also, when it comes to containers (you used .wmv), there are a lot more modern tools that can get you much lower filesizes and a much prettier format. Zarxgui (which can be downloaded from here, which has a lot of fun tools in it) is a very easy tool to accomplish this.
I'm also going to link you to a few handy guides that I think all newcomers should give a reading to. The first is about how to make a great music video, and talks about a lot of AMV-related theories. The second is a guide to everything about audio and video, just as a reference material.
I hope that I've been at least a little helpful, and I hope you stick around. IF you ever need anything, don't hesitate to ask!
___________________
Anyway, I checked out your video. For a first video, you several good ways.made a few mistakes that everyone makes in their first videos, but on the whole, you started out as an editor on a good foot.
First off, you did nice work with the visual quality. I've seen cleaner Cowboy Bebop, but this was definitely clean enough to watch without being distracting,
Secondly, you had a good concept. Wanting to capture the western aspect of Spike's "cowboy" nature. Cute idea (it's been done, but still cute), and the fact that you had a well thought out idea for what you wanted to edit is a great thing! Plus, I loved how you cast the villain as Jesse James. Made perfect sense, and was a cute idea.
Thirdly, you did a nice job with the opening bit with Spike and the blue rainy scene.
Unfortunately, what your AMV lacked (and again, this is something that a lot of new editors do, so don't be too discourageed) was execution. The scenes you selected really didn't match your concept, and the editing really didn't go well with the music.
What do I mean by this?
1) You stated that you wanted to capture Spike in this video, yet early on, you've got many scenes of Faye and Jet by themselves. If you want to focus on spike, then you really need to JUST keep him in the video as the central focus.
2) Transitioning wise, there were a few issues. See how at :08-:10, where you go from a VERY dark/somber scene, to a very bright/comical scene? It's very sudden and could have used something to make it easier for the viewer. A crossfade, perhaps? But more importantly, the scene here doesn't really fit the lyrics of the song. It's starting out about "When I was a cowboy", so you might have used a scene where he was in a bar, or reminiscing.
3) You really passed up on some interesting sync/editing opportunity. :48-:51 with those single syllable words? That's a perfect opportunity to sync those words to some interesting movements on screen, or doing hard cuts. Plus, this is prevalant throughout the video, and could have been repeated easily enough with the same style, but with different scenes.
Also, when it comes to containers (you used .wmv), there are a lot more modern tools that can get you much lower filesizes and a much prettier format. Zarxgui (which can be downloaded from here, which has a lot of fun tools in it) is a very easy tool to accomplish this.
I'm also going to link you to a few handy guides that I think all newcomers should give a reading to. The first is about how to make a great music video, and talks about a lot of AMV-related theories. The second is a guide to everything about audio and video, just as a reference material.
I hope that I've been at least a little helpful, and I hope you stick around. IF you ever need anything, don't hesitate to ask!
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Katlu8984
- Joined: Thu Jan 05, 2012 1:07 am
Re: On the Western Plain
Thanks for the advice. It was very helpful. I also saw the lip syncing opportunities I could have presented after I posted it. I used windows messenger. I've never really done much in the way of video editing overall and the most accessible tool I found was Windows Movie Maker. In hinsight, it is not a very enjoyable program to be making AMVs from. I just downloaded Zarxgui so I will use that in the future. I may go back and revise that video at another point but right now I am trying to try and make a video using scenes from Darker than Black and Depeche Mode.
Thank you so much for your advice and constructive criticism. I really appreciate it.
Thank you so much for your advice and constructive criticism. I really appreciate it.